When Nigel Adkins was sacked from Southampton the decision provoked a lot of anger. My twitter feed was full of people shouting about owners killing the game and how unfair it is that such a nice bloke who'd done such a great job could be treated this way.
A month or two later Reading sack there manager and the reaction is pretty much the same.
You'd think after the disgraceful way adkins was treated he wouldn't want to work for an employer who sacks managers in such a fashion, you might think he'd show some solidarity with his fellow managers. But you'd be wrong.
This is not a dig at him, this is how modern football works. But my question is this, do managers have it all there own way? At least in the top two leagues. Take SOD for example he takes the Foredt job after a good mate of his gets sacked leaving another club in the lurch without even having a game in charge in the process, only weeks before the season starts. This hardly gets mentioned. Then when he's sacked (harshly) its all about what a nice bloke he is and how awfully hes been treated. Totally forgetting how he got the job. He then leaves Forest considerably wealthier than when he arrives and walks in to a better job than he had in the first place.
Managers will happily work for people who've treated their mates badly. They'll make in known they want jobs when people are still in them. But they get all yhe sympathy and I reckon its wrong.
Managers
posted on 26/3/13
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posted on 26/3/13
Was never about sympathy for me. I have little sympathy for anyone who gets paid so much for doing a job we would all kill for. In the cases of SOD and Adkins, it was just outrage and shock at someone doing a decent job, and in Adkins case a brilliant job, getting shunted for no discernible reason. My sympathy was with the fans etc.
posted on 26/3/13
excellent point well put 'SHJ', could not agree more.
At the end of the day football is just becoming a giant game of 'musical chairs', especially in the top two divisions, with managers moving round and filling gaps left by others. TBH it not bad work if you can get it. From a personal point of view I would like to see fewer foreign managers employed, and more 'up and coming' British managers given a chance at the higher level.
posted on 26/3/13
Im not sure why you'd feel sympathy for the fans. I reckon we're proof that the fans arent that bothered if the teams winning after the initial fuss we move on quickly. You could argue both Forest and Southampton are better off. Our lot are certainly happier now than they were under SOD.
posted on 26/3/13
Should managers get sympathy for not 'doing' what the owners and fans perceive they should be doing. Look at Mr Eck who came into a job he was obviously not (mentally) fit for. Stayed 40 odd days, achieved nothing (and, arguably destroyed a bit) and then (probably) agreed to go only once a significant severance payment had been offered. I am not sure on that last bit, but something was going on.
When SOD left, he apparently said to the team that there were no hard feeling, and that it was just 'football'. Luckily for him (and probably because he is good enough) he walked straight into another job (that arguably suits him better).
posted on 26/3/13
Well, Sutton - Forest got AM after SOD - a massive come down, and a massive failure - so that's why I felt sorry for us. Now, we're doing well - they finally got it right. But, who's to say where we'd be if SOD had stayed. Maybe still in 7th, maybe where we are, maybe higher. We certainly wouldn't have had such an awful January. If AM had done a little bit better than he did, he'd probably still be there, and we'd be looking at mediocrity.
Soton aren't better off. They're a place lower in the table. The fans absolutely adore Adkins, and he's been replaced by someone who they've never heard of, who has made no progress, and it was all on the back of a very creditable draw with Chelsea. I do feel sorry for the fans. They've lost someone they worshipped for no reason. They probably feel a lot like SBD did when Billy first got sacked.
We've got lucky and come out the other side following a silly sacking. That doesn't always happen. And it's not fair on the fans. When AM came in, and during the first few games, I was actually angry, upset, and disgusted with a club I've followed for more than 25 years. Not a nice feeling.
posted on 26/3/13
I was upset when we appointed AM. But that's about appointing managers not sacking them. If Adkins had been sacked a bit earlier and we'd got him I'd have been delighted.
That's another thing that annoys me in football. People go on about sackings but it's the stupid reasons managers get appointed that's the big problem.
posted on 26/3/13
Its a fickle business but sure we all know it and nobody should be surprised by anything in football. What does make me laugh is when I read Sky pundits talking foul about clubs sacking managers or hiring 'foreign' managers and not giving english lads a chance, then in the next sentence they talk up about 4 or 5 of their drinking buddy journeymen for jobs!! With so much money comes pressure and ruthlessness, as has already been said I personally dont cry when millionaire mgrs get paid off. In some cases there senseless and unjust but its just the way it is. In Southampton's case their new owner had pulled them up from the gutter and funded two promotions which never would have happened without his backing. Granted sacking Adkins and appointing the lad whose name I dont even know was daft, but thats the price fans must pay for wealthy impatient owners! Just glad after our circus we finally got around to Billy and the owner too has now come around to realising just what all the fuss was about